Today, we discuss our favorite stimulant: Caffeine.

And nothing comes close. It’s easily the most widely consumed psychoactive substance, with 1.6 BILLION cups of coffee consumed A DAY (and that was back in 2015). Just imagine what the caffeine stats are now with the popularization of energy drinks. 

For obvious reasons, stimulating plant-based substances have always piqued the interest of athletes. In the past, like the early 1900s, they even experimented with cocaine, heroin, ether, and nitroglycerin to find ANY competitive advantage. Caffein’s association with them was likely the reason for caffeine’s banishment by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Fortunately, they realized caffeine wasn’t quite like the others, and caffeine was removed as a controlled substance.

Caffeine is, however, still monitored by WADA. Test results must have less than 12 micrograms/mL, which luckily corresponds to 2-3x the required intake to stimulate performance enhancements. So, if you get caught with those levels… you may want to consider cutting back. The NCAA even allows a higher level, <15 micrograms/mL, because I mean what population is more loaded with caffeine than college students? - That’s not the actual reason.

The limit is understandable, though. Caffeine is extremely attractive to athletes. It remains 1 of only 5 supplements definitively recommended by the IOC, Sports Dietitians, and Sports Scientists for its significant effects on performance. With that said, let’s get to understanding if caffeine can help you in your training.

Introduction – The What’s and How’s of Caffeine

First, how does our body use caffeine to enhance performance?

Caffeine is rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream throughout the GI tract, but mostly in the mouth cavity (with caffeinated chewing gums) or the intestines. Caffeine blood levels peak, on average, between 30-60 minutes after intake. This range, however, can vary from 15-120 minutes, illustrating significant differences in absorption and metabolism between individuals (something we’ll get to later). These differences depend on someone’s age, gender, genetics, disease, and lifestyle. Additionally, new chewing gum formulations now provide faster routes of absorption, via the mouth cavity, for alternative options based on needs.

Once absorbed, caffeine is metabolized by the liver’s Cytochrome P450 (CP450) enzyme, which detoxifies foreign substances in the body, and breaks caffeine down to be excreted through the urine. This breakdown rate, however, varies between people, with a half-life ranging between 4-6 hours, on average, and up to 1.5-10 hours. This, again, is highly dependent on the person and their use, smoking habits, and genetics.

Caffeine works through multiple mechanisms:

Primary Action: Stimulate the Central Nervous System (CNS)

• Caffeine antagonizes adenosine receptors, which increases the release of neurotransmitters like dopamine, norepinephrine, and glutamate.

• Together, this alters the consumer’s perception of muscle pain AND influences their ability to contract muscles.

Secondary Action:

• Increases calcium (Ca) availability in the muscle

  • Ca is essential for muscular contractions. With greater availability, muscle fibers are able to contract more forcefully and withstand fatigue.

  • Caffeine increases availability by stimulating Ca release from its storage organelle, the Sarcoplasmic Reticulum (SR), and inhibiting Ca’s reuptake. This means Ca remains available to the muscle for longer.

• Optimizes exercise metabolism

  • Caffeine deactivates regulatory pathways, like cAMP, used in regulating fat and glucose metabolism.

  • How it affects performance, however, is still unverified. Caffeine was thought to stimulate fat-preference metabolism during exercise, but that has been debunked.

• Energy Substrate Availability

  • It’s been proposed caffeine can increase glycogen production in the muscle, post-workout.

  • This would improve an athlete’s ability to refuel for upcoming events, unfortunately, the effectiveness of this is still unverified.

Therefore, caffeine’s primary effect on performance occurs by stimulating the CNS, influencing an athlete’s (1) perception of pain and (2) muscle contractility. For obvious reasons, this could have significant implications on training and performance since athletes do, at times, need to “push through the pain” to outperform their competitors.

Claims – Why is Caffeine Supplementation Note-Worthy?

First, let’s analyze how caffeine’s primary actions might influence an athlete’s ability to performance

Perception of Muscle Pain

Muscular pain can cause significant decrements in performance. Ever try to walk, sit, or climb stairs after leg-day with significant DOMS? Yeah, so that should be pretty obvious. But what’s actually happening?

Muscle pain reduces your body’s willingness to recruit muscle fibers, making it more difficult to activate the necessary musculature to contract. This alters an athlete’s perceived effort, something you might rate on an RPE scale, which means any given task feels more difficult than it should. Secondly, this reduced recruitment will decrease power production by the muscle.

Therefore, by reducing muscle pain, caffeine helps an athlete sustain muscular power by simply altering their perception and not actually physically changing the muscle.

Perceived Effort

The perception of effort can also have a significant impact on an athlete’s ability to perform. I’m sure you’ve had a day when your 135lb warm-up squat felt a little more gritty than usual, which can set a detrimental tone for the day. With greater ratings of effort, athletes will always struggle to perform at their given level (unless you’re MJ with food poisoning). It’s unclear, however, if caffeine’s alteration of effort influences muscle pain, or whether it’s the other way around.

Either way, caffeine appears to have significant effects on perceived effort. A meta-analysis indicated that caffeine reduced perceived effort by 5.6%. On a 10-point RPE scale, that’d be a difference between a 9 and an 8.5, enough to add 2-3 reps to your set. That’s likely why caffeine was found to contribute an 11% improvement in performance across many exercise modalities.

The primary and secondary effects illustrate why caffeine is a viable, and successful, ergogenic aid to boost performance and outcomes. Consider how small performance changes can alter event outcomes:

Changing an athlete’s average speed by ~1% in endurance events lasting 45-seconds to 8-minutes would change medal rankings. In Men’s road racing, for instance, the top 3 medalists differed by <0.01%.

So OBVIOUSLY a successful ergogenic aid, like caffeine, is alluring to athletes. And we’ll see that caffeine can, in fact, improve performance in both endurance and short-term, supramaximal events.

Endurance Exercise

Caffeine has consistently shown to improve endurance events by 2-4%. which is a crazy enhancement to athletes. These improvements were seen in multiple modalities, including cycling, running, cross-country skiing, and swimming – so you triathletes, listen up. The ergogenic enhancements were also achieved through low-to-moderate doses, between 3-6 mg/kg.

Of note, however, is the range of improvements in endurance events. A meta-analysis of 56 trials (79% of which were cycling-related protocols) saw a significant range in improvements: -3% to 15.9%. Yeah… that’s huge. It also illustrates our individual responses to caffeine. So, while caffeine may compromise performances in some athletes, others could see even greater improvements than the original 2-4%.

What contributes to these performance enhancements? For one, tests with Time-to-Fatigue (TTF) indicate that caffeine helps athletes resist fatigue. TTF was increased between 3-7%, indicating the athlete was able to maintain a given intensity for longer likely due to a reduction in perceived effort. Additionally, caffeine appears to be most effective when reducing the perception of fatigue. Thus, timing caffeine is essential. Timing should aim for caffeine to “kick in” at the event’s most fatiguing moment, likely near the end. Overall, caffeine appears to possess significant potential as an ergogenic aid for endurance athletes.

Muscular Strength, Power, Endurance, Ballistic Qualities

Okay, before we get into muscular effects of caffeine, let’s break these qualities down:

• Strength – Ability to produce force, as seen in 1-3 RMs

• Power – Speed at which force is produced, measured by Wingate tests or repeated sprints

• Endurance – Resisting fatigue, such as reps-to-failure

• Ballistic – A form of power, but characterized by extremely rapid movements, such as jumping or throwing.

Caffeine has shown to increase strength tests by 2-7%, providing more evidence of caffeine’s benefits to athletes. This is particularly helpful for strength-specific athletes, like powerlifters, who don’t need to transfer their strength (in the gym) to sport-specific movements, like running or jumping. That doesn’t mean, however, improvements in strength won’t benefit field-based athletes, so long as the strength is transfered to power and speed development.

Muscular power also significantly benefited from caffeine, with meta-analyses finding mean power and sprint work improved by 7% and 8%, respectively. Performance differences in sprint work appear dependent on the rest interval between protocols, suggesting caffeine is more beneficial in improving single or intermittent (allowing for longer recovery) compared to repeated, fatiguing sprints. Either way, athletes relying on muscular power should, if interested, consider caffeine as a potential ergogenic aid.

Weirdly, muscular endurance has seen mixed results with caffeine. While previous studies showed a 6-7% improvement, recent studies are less consistent. This, however, seems to correlate with the reduced efficacy of caffeine in repeated sprints, in that prolonged muscular contractions were not enhanced. To me, this lack of change is likely related to caffeine’s secondary effects, like Ca availability. While aerobic-endurance events rely more on CNS-related mechanisms for RPE and muscle pain, muscular endurance may be limited by other factors.

Finally, ballistic performances appear to see modest improvements with caffeine supplementation. Vertical jumping, single and repeated, improved 2-4%, which is valuable to basketball or volleyball players. Additionally, shotput and medball throws were improved, indicating usefulness to field athletes.

Overall, caffeine appears to be most helpful to strength and power athletes, like powerlifting and weightlifting, and any athletes whose performance relies on those qualities, like Football Linemen or Rugby players. These moderate-to-large benefits, however, are mostly training-specific. Therefore, it’s essential these qualities are transferred to sport-specific performances in order for athletes to actually improve in the game or competition itself.

Sport-Specific Performance

Studies have considered how caffeine may improve sport-specific performances. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to judge if caffeine improves sport-specific actions inherently or through training. We know a good strength coach should be able to utilize greater strength and power gains from training and transfer those to specific-specific performance enhancements But, can caffeine, by itself, improve sport-specific qualities?

At this point, there’s a real lack of evidence to show caffeine’s effect. Some characteristics were improved with caffeine, while others weren’t. For instance, basketball players increased their jump height and rebounds, but didn’t improve dribbling speed or sprint times; soccer players increased their distance covered, jump height, and passing accuracy, but didn’t improve their agility test; rugby players increased the number of body impacts and running pace, but also didn’t improve in agility.

From this, it seems caffeine is MOST effective in improving tasks related to endurance and muscular qualities. Other qualities, like dribbling speed or agility tests, may not improve because they’re limited by an athlete’s skill. Interestingly, other sport-specific improvements, like passing accuracy, may have improved via caffeine’s effect on cognitive performance, where it appears to enhance attention, vigilance, and reaction time, with doses up to 4 mg/kg.

Overall, caffeine provides definitive ergogenic aid for athletes. Whether they choose to supplement it during training or in competition, it appears to offer significant benefits. Don’t jump to buy caffeine just yet. Remember, these benefits had pretty significant ranges, indicating varied responses between people. This means we have to consider your personal dosing strategy to test whether caffeine is appropriate for you.

Use – What Caffeine should you use and How?

Now, you might be interested in trying out caffeine. You’ve determined that your performance goals can be enhanced by a caffeine protocol; but what exactly are you looking for?

Products

You probably know this, but you can find caffeine almost anywhere nowadays. There’re pills, powders, extracts, drinks, gums, gels… it’s not hard to find. What’s most important is finding the type of caffeine most appropriate for you and your sport. This means considering a few factors:

1. Dosage – Each product will provide a different dosage. It’s important to find a dosage the optimizes your performance without contributing negative side-effects.

2. Timing – Different sources will be absorbed in different rates. Additionally, depending on when you want the caffeine to “kick in”, you may want to try different timing strategies and products.

3. Tolerance - You need to tolerate the side-effects of supplementing caffeine. If you choose a product that gives you stomach discomfort, guess what… you aren’t going to do well in your race.

In regards to sources, the purest form of caffeine is caffeine anhydrous, which can come as either a pill or powder. Many caffeine anhydrous products come as capsules, but powders are also available to be mixed into drinks. Unfortunately, not a lot of supplements are third-party tested, which may lead to unwanted contamination. If you’re interested in caffeine anhydrous, try these third-party tested options:

• Science in Sport Caffeine, Caffeine Content = 200mg

• Kaged Muscle Caffeine Capsules - Caffeine Content = 200mg

• MaxiMuscle Caffeine Capsules - Caffeine Content = 100mg

Caffeine is also, and obviously, an ingredient in Pre-Workout Powders. However, they’re also filled with other ingredients, including other supplements and artificial additives. The additional ingredients might include beta-alanine, creatine, taurine, vitamins and minerals, L-Citrulline, collagen, and BCAAs. Managing the timing of ALL these ingredients is a downside to these Pre-Workout options. Each supplement has a unique timing consideration, and so when they’re packed together you lose the opportunity to time them correctly. If you decide to choose Pre-Workout as your caffeine source, I’d highly recommend NSF-certified sources so as to limit contamination of synthetic and artificial ingredients, especially because Pre-Workouts can be LOADED with that shit. Potential products include:

• Cellucor C4 Sport - Caffeine Content = 135mg; Other Ingredients: Creatine, Beta-Alanine, and Taurine

• Cytosport Cytomax Fast Twitch - Caffeine Content = 200mg; Other Ingredients: Vitamins, minerals, L-Citrulline, Beta-Alanine, Betaine, and Taurine

• Cytosport Brand Aminos + Caffeine - Caffeine Content = 125mg; Other Ingredients: BCAAs (Leucine, Isoleucine, Valine) and L-Citrulline

• Gnarly Preworkout - Caffeine Content = 180mg; Other Ingredients: Citrulline Malate, BCAAs, Beta-Alanine, and Ginseng root

• Gnarly Pump - Caffeine Content = 60mg; Other Ingredients: Vitamins, L-Arginine, Creatine, and L-Citrulline

• Herbalife24 Prepare - Caffeine Content = 100mg; Other Ingredients: Vitamins, minerals, L-Arginine, L-Citrulline, L-Ornithine Alpha-Ketoglutarate, Betaine, and Creatine

• True Athlete Energized Training - Caffeine Content = 50 mg; Other Ingredients: Creatine, Arginine, Beta-Alanine, and Proprietary Ginseng complex

• Vega Pre Workout Energizer - Caffeine Content = 100mg; Other Ingredients: Vitamin, minerals, and multiple caffeine sources

• Vital Performance - Caffeine Content = 200mg; Other Ingredients: Vitamin, minerals, Collagen, BCAA, L-Citrulline, Betaine, Creatine, Arginine, and L-Carnitine

Coffee is an obvious source of caffeine. Unfortunately, the amount of caffeine in coffee can be incredibly variable since the caffeine content isn’t standardized. This can make consuming the correct dose difficult if you choose a different coffee product every time. If you do opt for coffee, it’s best to make your own so you can keep the brand, amount, and dilution consistent, allowing you to standardize what works for you.

Sports supplement manufacturers have also developed a line of caffeinated drinks for athletes, the most recognized being Redbull (obviously). These products benefit from caffeine standardization and third-party-testing. Caffeinated drinks can offer on-the-go ease and quick consumption. If interested, try between these third-party tested options:

• Redbull - Caffeine Content = 80mg/12oz

• Science in Sport GO Caffeine Shot - Caffeine Content = 150mg/60mL

• Ettix Caffeine Energy Shot - Caffeine Content = 80mg/25mL

Caffeinated chewing gum is a newer product that offers a few advantages helpful to specific athletes. First, the faster rate of absorption via the mouth cavity allows the caffeine high to kick in quicker, thus timing is more easily organized. Secondly, the process allows caffeine to be easily ingested during an event without worrying about GI issues from drinking or digestion. Therefore, caffeinated gum could be useful to endurance athletes since they could easily supplement it during later stages to offset the perception of fatigue experienced. A few gum products to consider are:

1. RunGum - Caffeine Content = 100mg; Other Ingredients: Taurine

2. MEG (Military Energy Gum) - Caffeine Content = 100mg 

3. 6d Sports Nutrition Chewing Gum - Caffeine Content = 50mg

Caffeine Gels and Gummies are also new to the market. These are easy-to-consume packets or cubes packed with caffeine. Similar to gum, gels and gummies can be easily consumed during an event, unfortunately, they likely won’t be absorbed as quickly. Some options currently available include:

• Science in Sport Caffeine Gels - Caffeine Content = 150mg

• GU Energy Gel - Caffeine Content = 0-60mg

• Clif Bloks - Caffeine Content = 50mg

• Clif Shot - Caffeine Content = 25mg & 100mg

• Kinetica Caffeine Gel - Caffeine Content = 105mg

• MaxiMuscle Caffeine Gels - Caffeine Content = 75mg

• Etixx Caffeine Sport Gummies - Caffeine Content = 80mg

• Ote Caffeine Gel - Caffeine Content = 50mg & 100mg

• 6d Sports Nutrition Energy Gel - Caffeine Content = 75mg

It’s understandable if all these sources make choosing your caffeine product a little overwhelming. When deciding, on the best source, try to consider (1) what product is easiest for you, and (2) what product might be best for your sport.

Dosage

How much caffeine do we actually need? Not a lot, actually. The consensus shows performance is enhanced with just 3-6 mg of caffeine per kilogram of body weight (3-6mg/kg).

This amount is WAY below the threshold needed to raises blood levels against WADA and NCAA regulations, ~10mg caffeine/kg. This goes to show that athletes don’t need to overdo their caffeine to receive benefits.

Fortunately, the regular 200mg caffeine/dose prescription of supplements lines up pretty well with the 3-6 mg/kg recommendation. Athletes under 65 kg, or 145 lb, can achieve the recommendation with a single 200mg dose; while athletes who weigh more can simply include an additional ½-1 dose, ~100-200mg, to reach their needs. 

Adding additional doses, however, will come with consequences depending on your source’s purity. If your supplement has more than just caffeine, adding an extra dose to achieve caffeine needs might mean overdoing beta-alanine, creatine, or other substances. This means you could start experiencing side-effects related to the high-dosage of accompanying ingredients, like GI discomfort or paresthesia. This further supports the recommendation for using pure sources of caffeine to regulate the proper dosage of supplements.

Finally, 3-6mg/kg is likely beneficial for ingested caffeine, everything other than gum. Therefore, it’s recommended to test caffeinated gum out yourself and gauge what dose works for you. Common dosages are 100 mg/strip of gum, which can be a good starting point to start from.

Timing

Like we’ve noted, the timing of caffeine can be everything. Typically, the athlete should aim to peak their caffeine levels at the most opportune time. For many, this is either when (1) they experience the greatest fatigue or (2) they perform the most important event of the day. Like we’ve noted, ingested caffeine – powders, pills, drinks – take anywhere from 15-120 minutes, on average 30-60 minutes, to kick in. Caffeinated gum, however, can peak within 10 minutes. It’s important to test your response to whichever source you choose so you understand your body’s timing.

For endurance athletes, the most opportune time is the most fatiguing period of their race, likely in the end-stages. Therefore, depending on the duration of their race, they may consider consuming caffeine immediately prior to or during their race (if the race is over 60 minutes). This is why flat Coca-Cola has been a popular strategy employed by marathon runners near the end-stages.

Field- or Team-based athletes should also consider their fatigue levels. This could mean supplementing caffeine between halves, periods, or quarters so the stimulus kicks in later in the game.

For strength and power athletes, or gymgoers, caffeine is most beneficial during their most important event of the day. On training days, they should aim to peak during their prioritized exercises at the beginning of their workout, since these lifts are generally the focus for the day. Therefore, they should provide enough time for caffeine to kick in by supplementing ahead of time.

To determine your personalized timing, try these 3 steps:

1. Analyze your Event – When would be the best moment for caffeine to kick in?

2. Choose your Source – Try different products to find your preferred one. Consider if your source is applicable to your sport, i.e. would you want to chug a Redbull during a marathon, or would gum be better?

3. Determine your Timing – When do you feel the greatest effect? Use that to decide the best time to consume caffeine so it kicks in at the right time – your #1 decision.

Side Effects

Caffeine, unfortunately, isn’t ALL good. If you’ve ever had too much, you know how debilitating the side-effects can be. Excessive dosing can lead to:

• High heart rate

• Heart palpitations

• Anxiety

• Headache

• Insomnia

• Disturbed sleep

• Jitteriness

No athlete wants to experience these during their events, especially when they already feel their lungs and heart blowing up from competing.  

As such, every athlete should test their tolerance to caffeine. Remember, each person’s response to caffeine can be drastically different, and so lower dosages might not affect your friend but could freak you out. Fortunately, even low doses of just 3 mg/kg still improve performance, and so athletes should be able to find a dosage appropriate for them.  

Additionally, athletes should consider the qualities of their respective sport. Skill-based sports, like archery, tennis, or shooting, that require fine-motor control, are more likely to be impacted by caffeine (think about how shaky your hand gets). Thus, fine-motor or skill-based athletes should be more careful when deciding whether to use caffeine. On the other hand, sports that rely on physical demands, like football or rugby, are more likely to benefit from the higher arousal caffeine provides.

Finally, we have to remember that caffeine is a stimulant. It WILL disturb your sleep if it’s consumed too close to bedtime. This leads to an important benefit-to-risk consideration. While we want to perform well during training, we can’t expect to accumulate those benefits if our bodies are incapable of recovering – which sleep is essential for. Therefore, if your workouts occur in the evenings, it’s important to consider if caffeine is really that important. Ask yourself: Are you going to be able to recover if you’re forced to sleep 5 hours a night? If you ask me, probably not. And this lack of recovery will more likely counteract any benefits caffeine was offering.

Special Considerations

Caffeine might not be for everyone, and there’re real reasons for that.  

Genes

The variability between people appears to be due to genetic differences related to the CP450 enzyme. Variations in the enzyme split people into 2 categories:

1.     Fast Metabolizers

2.     Slow Metabolizers 

In regards to performance, fast metabolizers benefit from caffeine more than slow metabolizers. Additionally, slow metabolizers appear to be at greater risk for caffeine-related diseases, like hypertension. This explains why athletes must know their response to caffeine. Athletes shouldn’t consider performance enhancements to be a given. If there is no noticeable difference in performance, it’s better to simply opt-out. Otherwise, they risk wasting money or, worse, hurting their performance.

Habitual Intake

The impact of daily caffeine intake, through coffee or teas, has been difficult to measure since every source contains different levels of caffeine. However, there does not appear to be a difference in performance benefits between habitual and non-habitual users, although further study is still needed to understand the nuances.

Important, though, is the response to caffeine between habitual and non-habitual users. Non-users may experience greater side-effects, or feelings of anxiety and jitteriness because they aren’t used to the effects – further emphasizing the importance of trialing caffeine before important events. Additionally, tolerance may play a role, with habitual users needing more caffeine to feel the stimulating sensation induced by caffeine.

To account for lack of experience, it’s advisable for non-habitual athletes to start with lower doses to not overwhelm the body with unknown side-effects. DON’T JUST JUMP TO 300 mg/kg BECAUSE THAT’S THE RECOMMENDATION! You could very easily scare yourself away from caffeine. Instead, consider something between 80-200 mg, or ~1.5-3 mg/kg. Then, as you acclimate to the sensation, slowly test higher levels, up to 6 mg/kg, but only if needed. Remember, athletes can very easily maximize their performance benefits at lower doses (~3 mg/kg).

Finally, since habitual use of caffeine can build a tolerance to caffeine, these users could consider withdrawing from caffeine 1-2 weeks prior to important tournaments or competitions. At this stage, most of their training adaptations have already accumulated, and so caffeine use during training is less important. By abstaining from caffeine for 1-2 weeks, athletes can improve the impact of caffeine on their most important performance by becoming more sensitive to caffeine’s stimulus.

Caffeine and Smokers

Now, it might be obvious that athletes shouldn’t smoke. But the reality is it happens, and smoking is so addictive that it’s difficult for them to stop. Smoking, however, does impact caffeine metabolism. A smoker’s liver has higher levels of liver enzymes to detoxify nicotine and other contaminants. As a result, they are able to metabolize caffeine at almost twice the rate of nonsmokers, which would significantly affect their dosage and timing.

 Practical Application – What Sports would Benefit?

So how should athletes consider using caffeine? IT DEPENDS! Athletes need to recognize if and when caffeine would be most beneficial, which is subject to their sport and their goals.

Endurance Sports

• Caffeine is most valuable during the most fatiguing periods of their event, likely at the end-stages when fatigue is highest.

• A dose as small as 3 mg/kg can help improve their performance during those times.

• It’s up to the athlete to decide what type and timing based on their preferences and sport

  • Very-Short Events (<45 minutes): Caffeine should probably be consumed prior to the event. Therefore, athletes could use Pills, Powders, or Drinks to supplement caffeine, and likely wouldn’t need easy-to-consume options (like Gels and Gums).

  • Medium-duration Events (45-90 minutes): Caffeine could be consumed prior to or during the event, depending on the athlete. Thus, any source is available to them.

  • Long-duration Events (>90 minutes): A major factor should be accessibility during the event so the process of consumption does not interfere with their performance. As such, athletes may consider Shots, Gels, or Gums that can be carried and consumed during the event.

Muscular Strength and Power Sports

• These athletes, or anyone training in the gym, should consider when they’d want caffeine to kick in. Through trial-and-error, this population can easily determine the appropriate dosage and timing.

• Most likely, strength and power athletes should utilize caffeine near the beginning of their workouts to emphasize performance in their prioritized exercises.

• Therefore, they should supplement caffeine prior to arriving at the gym or during warm-up, depending on their chosen source.

Stop-and-Go Sports (Field- and Court-based Sports)

• These athletes need to factor in the duration of their sport, rest periods, and the most opportune time for caffeine’s effects. Similar to endurance athletes, this may be during periods of high fatigue, likely near the end of games.

• Here are a few considerations to consider:

  • Length of Games – If games last <45 minutes, athletes should supplement prior to starting so caffeine is active throughout the game. Longer games would require supplementation prior to the start or during rest periods, otherwise, caffeine levels may drop when high levels of fatigue begin setting in.

  • Available Times for Intervention – Athletes should consider if and when they have the opportunity to consume caffeine. For instance, if an athlete’s peak takes longer (closer to 60 minutes), it’s less helpful to supplement at half-time during a soccer game because the game would be over by the time caffeine kicks in. Managing this timing is important so caffeine isn’t wasted once games are over.

• Therefore, Stop-and-Go athletes should focus on trial-and-error to determine the best course of action.

As usual, caffeine use should be decided on an individual basis. Prescription is not for everyone, especially given the potential side-effects related to genetic differences. Always monitor performance to determine whether caffeine, or any supplement really, is appropriate for you and your sport. Check out the table below for an easy overview of who might benefit from caffeine supplementation.

If you see caffeine as “Useful”, try it out! It might help improve your time-trials or train harder. Just remember to monitor your performance and progress. You might decide caffeine just isn’t worth it. For those falling in “Not Useful”, it’s likely because your sport is skill-based, which could be affected by caffeine’s stimulating effects. Lucky you! You don’t need to worry about paying MORE to be better. Don’t worry though, there’re plenty of options for you to consider, and by striking this one off your list your choices just got easier.

Conclusion

After each of these reviews, it’s important to highlight the intention of this article was to provide a complete overview of caffeine for athletes to use in their decision-making process. No supplement should just be started on a whim; that’s why we should:

(1)   Understand the function and claims – Determine whether the supplement is relevant to an athlete’s sport. If a supplement doesn’t target physiology related to an athlete’s performance then there’s no need to consider it. However, if the supplement does improve sport-specific performance, then athletes must analyze the pros and cons of supplementation.

(2)   Weigh the risks, benefits, and costs – Supplements come with some baggage. They might have side-effects or safety concerns that must be known prior to starting them. They can also be costly, both monetarily and professionally. Loading up on an extensive supplement protocol could break your bank, but also opting for cheaper products could put your professional career at risk by failing doping tests. So, before you start, understand exactly what you’re taking. Then, consider if the benefits of supplementation truly outweigh the risks and costs.

Be sure to consider all the factors if you’re thinking about caffeine. It’s important to bring critical thought into your nutrition plan. Without it, we risk blindly following inaccurate or irrelevant claims and beliefs, and that’s when supplements become dangerous. If you have more questions, reach out to Preston Performance for a consult! We can discuss anything and everything that’s on your mind. We want to ease any hesitation or settle any inner disputes you might have. To anyone now sold on caffeine, good luck with your experience! I hope you’re a Responder and see all the benefits we expect. To athletes realizing caffeine isn’t for you, DON’T WORRY! We’ve got plenty of other ergogenic aid articles coming down the pipeline.

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Works Cited

• Benardot D. (2020). Advanced Sports Nutrition (3rd ed.). Champaign, IL: Humans Kinetics.

• Burke, L. (2007). Practical Sports Nutrition. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. 

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• Guest, N.S., VanDusseldorp, T.A., Nelson, M.T. et al. International society of sports nutrition position stand: caffeine and exercise performance. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 18, 1 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-020-00383-4

• Kerksick, C.M., Wilborn, C.D., Roberts, M.D. et al. ISSN exercise & sports nutrition review update: research & recommendations. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 15, 38 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-018-0242-y

• Maughan RJ, Burke LM, Dvorak J, et al. IOC consensus statement: dietary supplements and the high-performance athlete. Br J Sports Med. 2018;52(7):439-455. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2018-099027

• Mielgo-Ayuso J, Calleja-Gonzalez J, Del Coso J, Urdampilleta A, León-Guereño P, Fernández-Lázaro D. Caffeine Supplementation and Physical Performance, Muscle Damage and Perception of Fatigue in Soccer Players: A Systematic Review. Nutrients. 2019;11(2):440. Published 2019 Feb 20. doi:10.3390/nu11020440

• Spriet, L. L., PhD. (2020, May). Caffeine and exercise performance: An update. Retrieved February 04, 2021, from https://www.gssiweb.org/sports-science-exchange/article/caffeine-and-exercise-performance-an-update